An interesting piece in today's Weakend (sic) Herald ' Counter-culture' BDO a triumph of capitalism (C2). Some of the points it makes are blindingly self-evident (eg 'alternative' is just another genre or marketing slot) but it is interesting that these view are expressed by a marketing type. Apparently we may well be 'followers of Russell Brown rather than Russell Crowe'. Where you may go, we will follow...

Through completely unscientific methods, based on dealing with 300-400 students a year. You get essays submitted ripe with the smell of smoke, students construct arguments for decriminalisation (usually around not-well-constructed analyses of media coverage), and general demanour. This is not to say that drink culture (and P) can be just as much a problem.

As for 'it is my body and I can do what I want with it', that is the usual odious libertarian argument. Such folk can do what they want--ingest cyanide for all I care (indeed, I wish some libertarians would)--but I don't want such values (a moral vacuum?)) imposed on my world.

I was at the New Plymouth concert where the band was lurching around the stage, waving blazing newspapers. They could have burnt down the entire CBD of New Plymouth but at that stage of my life, I wouldn't have cared. In wake of this concert, Truth mounted a campaign to hound them out of NZ.